


shake the ground (with our voices so loud)

by yousee_saros (all_ivvant)



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: M/M, WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?, they explore abandoned ballparks, they're boyfriends, they're youtubers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:53:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22168948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_ivvant/pseuds/yousee_saros
Summary: It's always weird, to see a place people used to flock to, lie abandoned and in ruins.
Relationships: Javier Báez/Anthony Rizzo
Comments: 5
Kudos: 5
Collections: MLB Exchange 2019





	shake the ground (with our voices so loud)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [onakissgodknows](https://archiveofourown.org/users/onakissgodknows/gifts).

> Hi! I hope you love this! I agonized for a week trying to decide what to write and decided on this! Uh also sorry to the fans of the teams whose ballparks are mentioned. They still exist in the universe, just at different locations than where they are irl.

Javy’s waiting for Rizzo at the front of the stadium, the faded blue signage flapping in the wind above their heads. The Dodgers logo above them sits like a reminder of the past, abandoned when the team moved to a new stadium about fifteen years ago. Javy looks up at the entrance, as the heat from earlier in the day seeps into the soles of his sneakers from the concrete.

The parking lots that surround the stadium are empty, but Javy can imagine when it would be packed for home games and other events. It’s seriously weird to see a place like this, a home to thousands of fans and their favorite baseball team turn into a crumbling ruin overnight. Javy’s not sure he likes it so much. 

Neither of them are strangers to prying boards off entrances into abandoned buildings, but whoever put these boards up really did not want Javy and Rizzo getting into Dodger Stadium. They struggle for a few minutes, finally getting enough boards off to get their bags and camera in. Javy crawls through the gap in the board, Anthony following behind him. 

Javy works on collecting their gear as Anthony grabs the camera off the ground. He clicks it on, red light flashing as he pans across the decrepit stadium. The seats here are plastic, so they’ve seen less weathering than wooden seats might. The numbers are still faded though, bleached white by the sun. 

The field has grown up, and the walls in the outfield are covered by moss. There seems to be a tree that’s grown up near one of the walls, near the scoreboard. This ballpark is one of the newest abandoned ones, and is probably set to be demolished in the next few months. 

“You know, I still don’t understand why the Dodgers just up and left this place. It’s only like fifty years old or something, and even the Angels still play in their stadium, and it’s like roughly the same age.” Javy says, looking over at Anthony. 

“I really don’t know either. It’s not even really that old, in the grand scheme of things. I guess they don’t expect ballparks to last longer than twenty years now.” Anthony replies, crouched down, looking through his bag for his tripod. The bucket of baseballs is sitting nearby, next to where the bag with their baseball equipment is. 

“Do you need any help with any of that?” Javy asks, gesturing over at the gear Anthony’s fiddling with. He looks up from what he’s doing, looking at Javy where he’s standing at the rail. 

“If you wanna get the bats and gloves out, that would be great. I just got this tripod and it’s kind of being a bit of a pain in the ass right now.” Anthony answers, going back to fighting with the troublesome tripod. 

Javy unzips the bag that holds all of their baseball equipment, and pops the lid off the bucket of baseballs while he’s over there. He picks up a baseball, running his fingers over the red laces. He’s still a bit creeped out by the old stadium, especially when the wind whistles through the stadium just right, but it’s definitely a lot less creepy than some of the other buildings they’ve been in. 

Anthony swears loudly at the tripod again, and Javy looks over, watching as he fights with the tripod, trying to keep it from bending weirdly. 

Anthony’s finally able to figure out how to get the tripod to behave, and he sets up the camera. Javy hands Anthony a baseball, and he takes it, and throws it as hard as he can onto the field, the ball sinking into the grass. 

“Anthony, what the fuck?” Javy asks, turning around to look at Rizzo. 

“I just wanted to see how far I could actually throw it. Guess it’s a good thing we have more baseballs?” He says, a sheepish smile on his face. Javy can’t help but laugh a little bit too. His laugh echoes around the stadium, bouncing across the outfield and reflecting back towards them. 

It’s really strange, being somewhere like this, where they’re probably the first people here in fifteen years. He’s not sure what to think about that. It’s a weird feeling, to say the least. 

Javy grabs his bat, and gets ready, as Rizzo winds up, throwing Javy a pitch. The bat connects with the ball, and the ball goes flying into the outfield, falling into the grass. The ball vanishes without a sound, like nothing ever disturbed the grass in the first place.

*** 

“Isn’t it weird seeing these places empty?” Javy asks, looking back at Rizzo, who’s holding the camera. They’re standing in front of Fenway Park, which is creepier in the dark. The old park looms behind them, and Javy’s not too excited about it.

The place gives him the creeps, even during the day, and he turns around, working on prying the boards off. Rizzo helps, helping Javy, and eventually they get in, the concrete crumbling under their sneakers. It’s a lot smaller than they anticipated, the smell of decay and rot swirling in the wind. The stars twinkle overhead as the grass in the field ripples. 

“Do you wanna go check out the scoreboard?” Anthony asks, and JAvy groans. The scoreboard looms in the outfield, and it gives Javy the major creeps. Anthony’s been talking about it the whole way over though, so Javy sighs, and follows Anthony. 

He’s got blueprints out for Fenway, and he’s peering down at them, using a flashlight to figure out how to get to the door of the scoreboard. 

“Do you want me to hold the camera for you?” Javy asks, peering over Anthony’s shoulder at the blueprints he’s got unrolled on an old concession stand counter. The camera’s sitting on the counter next to him, and Javy picks it up, and starts rolling. 

He pans across to where Anthony’s looking at the blueprints.

“Where did you even get those? Were they online or something?” Javy asks. Anthony looks up at Javy, who’s got the camera pointed at him. 

“I bought it online. Printed it out on legal paper.” Anthony tells him, as he circles something on the blueprints. “Also, I think I found a way inside the scoreboard. You brought the headlamps, right?”

Javy sets his bag on the counter, and unzips one of the front pockets, and tosses Anthony a headlamp.

“Where do we have to go to find the entrance? Downstairs?” Javy asks, as he tugs a headlamp over his hair. Anthony rolls up the blueprints, and sticks it back in his bag. 

“Yeah, there’s a door down past the clubhouse. I think it should be unlocked.” Anthony says, putting his bag back on. Javy hands him the camera, and shoulders his own backpack. He follows Anthony downstairs, and they make their way past the clubhouse, the doors boarded shut. 

There’s a green door at the end of the hall. It’s got boards across it, but after prying the boards off, they find that it’s unlocked. Rizzo pushes the door open, and the hinges squeak, just like all the other doors in the building. Javy follows Anthony inside, the beams of their headlamps cutting a path through the dark. 

There’s stacks of old letters and numbers in the hall that were probably used in the scoreboard at some point. Anthony’s filming as they walk down the hall towards the scoreboard. It’s dark and musty in the hallway, and Anthony almost trips on old letter and number boards at least twice. They get inside the scoreboard eventually, encountering another squeaky door on the way in. 

Anthony tilts the camera up to look at the old decaying framework of the scoreboard. They can see strips of sky and the stars through the empty holes in the scoreboard. The wind whistles through the gaps in the wood, and Javy can’t help but feel a little sad about the whole thing.

“This place used to be home to fans and a baseball team, and now it’s crumbling down to it’s foundation. Isn’t that weird?” Javy asks, looking up at the stars that twinkle through the holes in the scoreboard. 

“Extremely weird. This place is giving me the creeps. Wanna go hit baseballs into the grass?” Anthony asks, looking back over at Javy. 

“Yeah, in a minute.” He says, taking one last glance up at the rotting support beams, before following Anthony out of the decaying scoreboard.

*** 

It’s their thing, exploring old abandoned ballparks, and then recording batting practice in these places. Neither of them have enough power to get it over the outfield wall, but they bring their gear anyways.

Javy’s got their bats and gloves, and Anthony’s holding the camera and a bucket of baseballs. They broke into Wrigley Field, busting down the boarded up entrance gate to get in. The iconic marquee was covered in decaying plant matter, that moved in an unfelt wind.

“Rizz, this place gives me the creeps.” Javy says, looking back at Anthony. Usually ballparks don’t feel like this, but they’ve also never been inside a major league park with the history this ballpark has. 

The seats are made of old decaying wood, and Javy looks up at the canopy above them. Rizzo pans up with the camera, eye pressed to the viewfinder. 

“Why do you think they stopped playing baseball here? I mean, it's not like the Cubs can’t afford to repair the place, you know. I mean, if they can sign Castellanos to an 85 million dollar deal, they can at least afford to do something with this place. They are a billion dollar organization.” Anthony tells Javy, who looks back at him. 

“Yeah, I really don’t get it either. It’s a cool place, even if it is a little creepy like this.” Javy replies, kicking at some of the plants that are growing up over the crumbling concrete. They’re on the first level of seating in the ballpark, and there are plaques lining the crumbling brick walls.

The wind blows through the empty, decaying ballpark, as they make their way down the stairs to the railing. Javy and Anthony look out at the dark field, tall grass waving in the wind, obscuring the basepaths. The ivy rustles in the wind, hundreds of feet from where they’re standing. It’s starting to turn red, waiting for October baseball that it’ll never see. 

“Well, we are here for a reason. To mash dingers in abandoned ballparks.” Rizzo says, setting down the bucket he was carrying. Javy sets his bag on the crumbling concrete and unzips it, getting out his bat. Rizzo pops the lid off the bucket of balls they had bought earlier, and tosses Javy a ball. He looks down at the white leather, and the way the laces cross over. Soon enough, this ball’s gonna be lost out there in all that tall swaying grass. 

“That’s true. Are you gonna pitch me something that I can hit over the ivy?” Javy asks. Rizzo laughs, his voice echoing through the silent stands. 

“I can’t promise that, but I can try.” Anthony says. They work on setting up the camera so it can record footage. They’ll edit everything later, but they need footage to use first. 

Javy positions himself, resting his bat on his shoulder. The grass ripples in the wind, as the wind itself pierces Javy’s jacket. He shivers, and watches Anthony as he gets ready to pitch to Javy. He swings, missing the ball, and Anthony laughs at him. 

“Fuck off! That was a strike, you asshole!” Javy yells at him, throwing the ball back at Rizzo. He laughs even more, but catches the ball and gets ready to throw a second pitch. ‘

The second one’s a lot better, and Javy hits it, the ball cracking against the bat. It flies through the night, and both Anthony and Javy watch it sail across the field, almost clearing the outfield wall. It plummets into the tall grass, like it was never there in the first place.

Anthony grabs another ball from the bucket, tossing it to Javy. He picks up his bat.

“Think you can throw a solid pitch?” He asks, shouldering his bat.

“You know I can, better than you,” Javy replies, setting down his bat. 

“Alright then, prove it,” Anthony says, grinning at Javy. He picks up his bat from where he set it down next to the chairs, dropping his glove on the ground.

Javy moves over to where Rizzo was standing, and lobs a pitch his way, Anthony swinging. He connects with the ball, a loud, satisfying crack. The ball flies deep into center field, sinking into the tall grass. It disappears, the way the ball that Javy hit did, the grass waving around it like it was never there at all.

The wind causes the grass to ripple in the outfield, and Javy looks up at the stars that shine above them, like he and Anthony are the only two people in the world. 

Anthony walks over to where Javy’s standing, almost against the rail. He slings an arm up over Javy’s shoulder, and presses a kiss to Javy’s cheek. Javy can’t help the smile that spreads over his face. 

“Nice night, huh?” He asks, not turning to look at Anthony. He’s warm even in the cold Chicago air. 

“Sure is, yeah.” Anthony says, and Javy looks over. Anthony’s eyes are bright, as bright as the stars that shine above them. It really is a nice night.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Ragamuffin by Silversun Pickups.


End file.
